P.M Bennett: we are before an infection storm we haven't seen in Israel

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said this morning in an interview on the "This Morning" program on Kan B that "we are just before the contagion storm - on a scale we have not seen in Israel." Bennett added that according to the isolation policy that is expected to be adopted by the government, vaccinated people will not be required for isolation - even if they are exposed to a verified patient. The Prime Minister stressed that the data on the hospitalization of children in the world due to the spread of the omicron are on the rise and called on parents to vaccinate their children.
The omicron is different from anything we knew, it is very contagious. It is seen in the world that it breaks all records, in almost all places, so very many people will catch up. What's important - vaccines do not completely prevent infection, but they do dramatically reduce serious morbidity.
According to the Prime Minister, there is a tendency at the moment to feel an "end-of-course atmosphere", but we are not, still dangerous. Currently, in London, New York, and elsewhere in the world, there is a significant increase in hospitalizations and pediatric hospitalizations. So I really ask and expect parents who just as they defended themselves to protect the children. Vaccines are safe - millions of American children have been vaccinated with a second vaccine, it's safe and it works.
Bennett emphasized that the decision he made to close the skies of Israel to foreign entry brought us four weeks of advantage over the rest of the world, even five weeks. While Europe is now at the height of the wave and closures, and the Netherlands in general closure, also in Austria, we are still a moment before the wave - and that has given us an advantage in procuring medicines. It was not a simple move at all, to say the least.
'I was told that not imposing lateral limits was a mistake and I withstood that pressure. I'm not afraid to do what's right. Here I do not know what a day will bring. We will in any case be in a very challenging situation in terms of the capacity capacity of the hospitals, but we can succeed in that. If we keep the adults, even if they are vaccinated, it is better that for two to three weeks, at the height of the wave, they will avoid reaching crowded places, even if they are allowed to. If everyone goes to the full range of vaccines they can - I'm optimistic. "But there is really some kind of cooperation between the government and the citizens," he said.
The prime minister added that his government must maintain a state. It is impossible every time there is a corona wave to close the country. I can tell you what I would expect. What I would expect is state behavior. When Netanyahu was prime minister, he asked the opposition to refrain from the unnecessary gathering of forty-signature speeches, which is basically symbolic - and the opposition responded.
The prime minister defended his wife who traveled abroad on Hanukkah even though he advised Israelis to avoid such trips and claimed that she followed the rules. On coming to the Knesset for a vote even though he should have been in isolation he replied that he had no choice.
Unfortunately for Bennett, Netanyahu does not reveal the same stateliness that Lapid discovered at the time - and sticking will be his responsibility. We really begged him - why do it, why, you might get infected. You're forcing me to come. In general, I think this opposition has lost all trace of stateliness. A recent example is that Netanyahu ran with English videos in the international media and attacked the government, our country.

4 days ago prime minister's daughter was infected in Corona, his office announced today (Sunday). Bennett himself went negative to Corona in an antigen test conducted this morning at the entrance to the cabinet meeting, and yet he will go into home isolation, separately from his daughter, and undergo another PCR test. "The prime minister and his family will act in accordance with the guidelines and rules."
Meanwhile, it soon became known that the daughter of the Minister of Education, Yifat Shasha Bitton, had also contracted the virus. For this reason, the minister was absent from the cabinet meeting this morning. She underwent a PCR test, and will remain in isolation until the results are obtained.
At the entrance to the cabinet meeting this morning, for the first time since the outbreak of the corona, government ministers were asked to undergo a rapid corona examination. An MDA mobile was placed outside the compound where the yeshiva is held at Kibbutz Mevo Hama in the Golan Heights, and the entry of ministers and other guests into the yeshiva was allowed only subject to the presentation of a negative test result. The worker was transferred to solitary confinement, without coming into contact with the prime minister or the ministers. Other employees who came in contact with her, and came out negative in the tests, do not participate in the meeting out of caution.

The Ministry of Health announced this morning (Sunday) that 760 new verifications of the coronavirus have been diagnosed on the last day in Israel. This is from 37,538 tests for the virus that were conducted yesterday. It was also reported that for the first time since October, the positive rate stands at over two percent - 2.07%, and at the same time, the coefficient of infection continues to rise and stands at 1.41.

The data also show that the number of critically ill patients rose to 98, of which 39 breathed. According to the data, 82.5 of the patients whose condition is serious have not been vaccinated against the virus at all. 8,242 patients died in the country from the outbreak of the plague, with the last on the list passing away on Friday.
Last night the Ministry of Health updated that 591 new verified variants of the omicron were diagnosed yesterday. To date, 1,118 verified species have been identified, of which 723 are from abroad. In addition, there is a high suspicion of another 861 cases of exposure to the variant for which the flooring results have not yet been received.